• The last two weekends, I've had two speaking gigs -- and as much as I love doing them, they require a ton of preparation, which can be exhausting, especially when done back-to-back. So after my TEDxSanAntonio talk (thanks so much to those of you who came, by the way!), I've been able to relax a bit this week, returning to routine (including the haunting of favourite coffeeshops, natch). It's been so restorative.

• Renowned portraitist Chuck Close photographed 20 celebrities for Vanity Fair. That sentence in itself isn't particularly novel, but check this out: each celebrity were required to come alone or only with one close friend (no entourage), they had to do their own hair and makeup, there was no fancy catered spread -- and they were photographed with a giant Polaroid camera, which meant no Photoshop or computer manipulation of the final images. Awesome, right? There's a video about the project here, and some of the portraits and outtakes from the shoots here. And I now need to rush out and buy this issue of Vanity Fair, clearly. (Thanks to Nicole for letting me know about this!)